Conventionally, various security measures are taken to prevent unauthorized use of information processing apparatus. For example, a predominant authentication scheme for personal computers and the like involves allowing an authorized user to register a password with a basic program known as BIOS (Basic Input Output System) and checking for authenticity of a user based on whether a password entered by the user upon start-up of the computer matches the registered password.
Furthermore, authentication schemes which utilize a smartcard or fingerprint matching are getting ready for commercialization in recent years.
However, with conventional password-based authentication schemes, security could be broken due to repeated attacks by unauthorized users, stolen passwords, or the like.
Also, although the authentication schemes which utilize a smartcard or fingerprint matching ensure tight security, they have a problem of increased costs because the smartcard-based authentication requires a special smartcard reader and the fingerprint authentication requires a fingerprint reader.